


Born and Trained

by The_Last_Kenobi



Series: Whumptober 2020 [31]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Betrayal, Child Neglect, Dark, Dark Character, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gen, Injury, Manipulation, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Protective Obi-Wan Kenobi, Protective Qui-Gon Jinn, Sith, Sith Qui-Gon Jinn, Surprise Dark Characters, The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars), Whump, Whumptober 2020, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Last_Kenobi/pseuds/The_Last_Kenobi
Summary: A Master's duty is to prepare their apprentice for the real world, for what awaits them in the future.Qui-Gon Jinn apprentices Obi-Wan Kenobi, and nothing is quite as it seems.Written for Whumptober 2020Day 31 - Experiment
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn & Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn/Tahl (Star Wars)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956463
Comments: 11
Kudos: 134





	Born and Trained

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to publish this on Halloween so badly but I was ~busy~ so here we are. Sorry darlings.

Qui-Gon Jinn placed a large, callused hand on the shoulder of the slim, ginger-blonde boy standing in front of him. Obi-Wan Kenobi looked back up at him, his eyes wide and uncertain and hopeful. Qui-Gon squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, and looked back up at the Council.

“I do,” he confirmed, “I take Obi-Wan Kenobi as my Padawan Learner.”

The Council smiled.

The Force had spoken—despite all Jinn’s protests, despite Obi-Wan’s flaws, their meddling and their trust in the Force had succeeded. Jinn had refused Kenobi again and again, had dismissed him, but it had all worked out in the end.

Qui-Gon patted Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “Come along, little one.”

Qui-Gon and Kenobi would be a wonderful team.

* * *

Qui-Gon stood in the ever-increasing wreckage of Melida/Daan and accepted the lightsaber from Obi-Wan’s hand slowly, their fingers brushing for a moment. Obi-Wan’s eyes were filled with pain, betrayal, and determination.

Qui-Gon’s were empty, and angry. “So,” he said. “You have made your choice. You will never be a Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

The boy’s face twisted in anguish, but he nodded. “…Goodbye, Qui-Gon.”

The Master turned on his heel and left.

* * *

Obi-Wan stood in the corner with his arms wrapped around himself and watched as Qui-Gon talked jovially with Tahl and Bant. Tahl, Qui-Gon’s best friend; Bant, Obi-Wan’s.

Except Qui-Gon was watching Bant the way he had never watched Obi-Wan—with the curiosity of a Master considering taking on a Padawan. With _interest_. With burgeoning affection.

Obi-Wan hugged himself and then let go, letting his arms hang at his sides, knowing that his few scraps of dignity were all he had left. His peers had shunned him for Melida/Daan, the Council had censured him, Qui-Gon had put him aside, and Xanatos, Qui-Gon’s Fallen apprentice, was trying to kill them all.

Obi-Wan stepped forward meekly and offered what help he could.

* * *

Tahl was dead.

Everyone blamed Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that was both just and unjust. Obi-Wan had never been more horrified by a simple injury and what it had caused. Bant Eerin turned her back on him. Qui-Gon Jinn weighed him down with cold, heartbroken judgment, keeping him close and keeping him at arm’s length.

Obi-Wan floundered, but he couldn’t leave Qui-Gon. He couldn’t.

They were meant to be Master and Apprentice, he _knew_ it.

Forget Yoda, forget the Council, forget everything but—but the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi needed each other.

Obi-Wan forced Qui-Gon to eat and drink and shower and walk and talk his way out of the depths of grief, a process of months upon months, receiving nothing in return except blank stares and occasional rebukes.

Until one day Qui-Gon rested his hand on his shoulder again, warmth radiating from him, and whispered, “Well done, Padawan.”

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what he was being praised for, but his whole being lit up.

* * *

They had just finished settling a territorial dispute between two neighboring systems over an asteroid belt rich with valuable ore.

Obi-Wan had turned nineteen—he was grown more confident, more clever, stronger. He followed where Qui-Gon led, and he had learned and was continuing to learn so much. Even when they clashed over the Living and Unifying Force, even when they bickered about rules and respecting the Council, even when Obi-Wan ignored orders and Qui-Gon alternated between praising him for it and despairing over his capability…

Even with all that, they had become perhaps the best Team the Order had to offer.

Qui-Gon grinned as they boarded their ship home. “So, little one,” he said warmly. “How do you feel?”

“Accomplished, Master,” Obi-Wan said with a smile. “And ready for a proper shower. I think we both stink.”

Qui-Gon smiled. “Showers it is. And Obi-Wan?”

The Padawan looked up at him, curiously.

“I’m proud of you.”

Obi-Wan glowed.

* * *

Obi-Wan hit the ground hard, unable to catch himself, his head cracking against the pavement painfully. His vision blackened.

When it flickered back, he saw flashes of people moving, blasters firing.

There was a blue glow in front of him; he frowned at it, wondering why his lightsaber was lying in the dirt for anyone to take, wondering why he had dropped it. Stupid, really. He tried to reach for it, but his arms wouldn’t move.

Pain resonated from his temples.

When he attempted to sit up, hot pain roared into his awareness, emanating like fire from his right side.

Suddenly Qui-Gon was there, leaning over him, his face distraught.

That was bad.

What was he so upset about?

Obi-Wan must have said something aloud, because then Qui-Gon almost looked as if he were about to cry—and that couldn’t be, because he’d barely even cried after Tahl had perished, but here he was gripping one of Obi-Wan’s shoulders with one hand and caressing his face with the other, tears in his eyes.

“Master—” Obi-Wan gasped out.

“Be still, little one,” Qui-Gon insisted. “It will be all right. I’m going to save you.”

Darkness rolled over Obi-Wan’s eyes.

When he woke again, it was to the Healers telling him how fortunate he was, and to Qui-Gon watching him from the bedside chair, his eyes full of pride and relief.

* * *

They went to Tatooine, and their bond went as quiet as it had after Tahl died.

Except instead of ice and despair, this was just—clinical. Qui-Gon simply shut the door and locked it, leaving Obi-Wan standing alone and uncertain after thirteen years of partnership and trials and friendship; Qui-Gon gave his affection and support so easily to a brattish, angry, hurting boy from Tatooine.

And threw Obi-Wan Kenobi away right in front of the Council.

Oh, he put a very thin façade of respect up. He barely pretended to promote Obi-Wan.

And Obi-Wan verbally supported him.

But anyone with sentience could see that it was false, and Obi-Wan watched again from the corner as his Master lavished attention on another potential apprentice, leaving Obi-Wan in the cold. Only Obi-Wan didn’t try to hug warmth back into himself this time.

He just watched, and waited.

Qui-Gon had to have a plan.

Didn’t he?

* * *

Qui-Gon Jinn went to his knees with a gasp, a burning red lightsaber buried in his gut.

Obi-Wan’s _rage_ crashed forth like a storm, a natural disaster, completely understandable and utterly untamable. He burst free of the ray shields the moment they vanished and unleashed that fury on the Zabrak Sith, clashing and crushing him, his teeth bared like a wild animal’s.

Then he was knocked off his feet like a fool.

But Obi-Wan could sense that Qui-Gon was still alive, and so, clinging to hope and rage and Qui-Gon, he launched himself back out of the pit of defeat and sliced the bastard Sith in half, sending him tumbling into the pit in two separate pieces.

With a flash of triumph, Obi-Wan raced to his Master’s side—

And Qui-Gon suddenly sat up, as if he had never been hurt at all, and smiled a strange smile. His large hand came up and touched Obi-Wan’s forehead, and Darkness rolled over Obi-Wan’s vision again.

* * *

Obi-Wan Kenobi woke in a shadowed room, bound to a cold table, his limbs locked in place.

A Force suppression field surrounded him, glowing eerily. It distorted his vision. But not so much that he did not recognize Qui-Gon Jinn when the man strolled into the room and looked lovingly down at him, his eyes burning Sithly gold.

“ _Why?_ ” Obi-Wan asked.

Qui-Gon tilted his head. “You were my experiment, Obi-Wan Kenobi,” he said. “I did not think it possible anymore, until I met you. Feemor died in the field under my command. Xanatos went mad and attempted to kill me. But you?”

He smiled. “You offered yourself to me as a Jedi again and again, tried to lay down your life for me, even. And after I had rejected you so cruelly and repeatedly. And… an idea struck me.”

Obi-Wan yanked his arms and legs against their bindings, feeling cold disbelief washing over him as his Master continued to stare down at his bound form with such affection and satisfaction.

“I realized I could make you Sith without training you as one. I tested you, again and again and again. Bandomeer. Melida/Daan. Tahl’s unfortunate demise. I encouraged the Jedi’s disdain of you, divided you from your friends, made you wait on me again and again. And just as you were about to break, I came to you with love. I made you happy.”

A frown crossed his face. “Then you nearly died. Oh, I was so worried it was over. I have grown quite fond of you, and the plan was succeeding so very well. But it was _proof_ , that you could be Turned. I used the Dark Side to heal you. I murdered everyone in that room and gave you their life, and your soul _accepted_ it, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan’s heart stuttered in his chest.

This was too much, too much—

Qui-Gon smiled more widely and reached a hand carelessly into the suppression field, stroking Obi-Wan’s cheek with gentle affection. “And then _I_ nearly died, and you proved _yourself_. You Fell. You have been reborn into the Dark, and you shall wait in the wings once more, my faithful friend and servant, while I repeat the process on the Chosen One.”

“ _No_ ,” Obi-Wan said, his voice wavering.

Inside his chest, something that might have been his heart said _Yes. Yes. Victory and death and Dark_.

“All I have left to teach you is how to _give_ pain instead of receive it,” Qui-Gon caressed him again, and the Dark thing inside Obi-Wan sang.

“You were an excellent experiment, little one,” said the Sith, said his Master. “We will always be a wonderful team.”


End file.
